The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1887-12-09
The Houses We Live In.
rwo MATERIALS THAT WILL rLAr
LARGE PART IN THE NEAR FUTURE.

WIN every successive century the
Of well built houses has in
creased, the luxuriousness of the dwell
ings of the rich has become magnifed,
and more and more of what once were
the luxuries of the ricl, have become
the property of the comparatively poor.
Fireplaces. furnaces, stoves, cheap
glass, and ample sash windows, plenty
of water for the turning of tap, all
the appliances of the plumber, and,
finally, gas and electricity have crowd.
ed upon us, and make the modern
house, even when intended for family
in moderate circumstances, more
complex affair by far than the castle OF
a robber Baron of the middle ages.
The shortcomings of our houses,
writes Mr.. w. N. Lockington in the
Philadelphia american, arise from the
very plethora of inventions and COM
plexities crowded into them. Most of
these are so new that we have not
learned how to make the best use of
them how TO extract beauty from
them-have not, in fact, digested them.
Past ages had fewer comforts, but
they were well-digested, and beauty
was given to the useful article. The
Roman candelabrum held only rude
oil-lamp, yet it was a more aesthetic
object than our modern electric lamps,
because thought was lavished on its
form. When the electric lamp is as
familiar to us as the oil lamp was to
the Romans, perhaps we may have
learned how to make it an artistic OBJ
ject.
Moreover, our houses are not, as re-
CARDS their construction, abreast either
of the engineering or sanitary science
of the age. This is largely due to the
existence of the practice Of house
manufacture by spectators, who wish
to give as much as possible at the
smallest possible expense and still
more largely to the love of ostentation
and lack of knowledge of construction
or sanitation on the part of the house
buying and house renting public.
The decadence of style, SO much re-
GREETED by that class of articles who
love to look backward, is not worth
sighing for. This Is the necessary
result of worldwide civilization, and
probably the prelude to universal
style. When, after oscillating from
fashion to fashion, we have chosen
from the styles of past ages all that is
suitable to modern purposes, when the
now started toward the honest use of
materials has eliminated in the most
suitable as well as most honest use of
them; and when we have learned to
throw web of beauty around those
new additions to our comfort which
our romanticists and medi@valist now
consider inartistical and unpoeticsl
then a new and universal style will be
evolved.
In the meantime We are crude. We
do not drain our easements thoroughly,
nor construct our plumbing and drain
age as well as we know how to do it
we neglect to provide damp courses
against the ascent or damp, or to con-
struct our brick or stone walls hollow
for the same purpose; we make our
floors of inch boards laid upon planks
set on edge, though we know that by
SO doing we are building harbors for
yermin and laying fuel for flame we
build crazy, unrestful roofs, full Of
peaks and cutters, though we are sure
that it will be hard to keep them
weather proof and we line our rooms
with matchwood mouldings and vain.
scotings in order to shelter our insect
foes and give fire free sweep. Par
titions between rooms are still built OF
wooden studs though lime blocks and
porous and hard terra-cotta are all well
kno vn and comparatively cheap ma
terials, and would be cheaper were
they more in demand staircases are
built most fimsily of thin wood, and
often rest against wooden partitions
water closets are combined with bath
rooms, so that only one person can be
accommodated at time and no pro-
visions are made for ventilation.
Some of these faults are the result
of passing fashion for the ways OF
the eighteenth century, but none oi
them are in harmony with the science
and progress of the last quarter of the
nineteenth, and none of them are
essentially artistic or are capable of a
better artistic effect than can be pro
duced by a more scientific and rational
construction.
The age of compo has passed away
we no longer cover rough brick OF
stone walls with consuls and plasters
of stucco; the reign of the American
country vernacular, of jig-saw scrolls,
'rustic" boarding, clap-boards and
painting in assorted colors, is nearly
over, but we have yet much to learn
before stone, brick and solid wood
terra-cotta and other fire-proof or slow
burning materials are used correctly
and artistically, before our houses are
proof against the gases from ground
aud sewer and before our ornamen,
is that which bests suits its situation.
Two well-known materials, one used
at present to some extent in house
building, the other now chiefly employ
ed as decoration, will probably play
large part in the house construction
of the future.
These are glass and paper. The
former is harder and stronger thar
iron, so much so that already it ha,
been used for railroad beds it can b,
made semi transparent, SO as to let il
light without permitting clear vision
or entirely opaque by proper admixtur
of its components and it is the mos
clean and imperishable of substances
Glass may thus come into play in tn
better class of houses, while the house
of the relatively poor may be mad
more roomy and comfortable by tn
general use Of slabs or sheets of pulT
ed vegetable fibre or paper-the cheay
est of materials, and one which is bot
cleanly and enduring when properl
made and treated.
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